Tapping in to the awesome creativity of students and startups

Welcome to the Stibo Accelerator

The Stibo Accelerator applies the unique strength of the Stibo network to bringing research and entrepreneurship closer to the industries we operate in.

The initiative supports research and accelerates innovation by providing 12-20 teams of students and startups every year with the best possible setup for exploring new trends and technologies in close relationship with the industry partners in our vast global network.

We are curious and we love to challenge conventional thinking. And we gladly share our projects and findings with everyone who shares our passion for innovation.

Glimpse from a day in the Accelerator

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Here's a look at today's (more or less) highly concentrated work in the Stibo Accelerator

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Stibo is passionate about what’s around the next corner, and we know that in the realm of tomorrow’s technology, the rules are written as we go.

Students and startups are some of the most innovative and out-of-the-box-thinking folks around, and we love to be inspired and surprised by the new ideas they bring out.

Our accelerator program is unique in the way that we invest in inviting in the best of the best and nurturing them so they can focus on their projects rather than on a bunch of practicalities.

Closer to reality?

This is a core value for the Stibo Accelerator: Instead of students working around the clock for 4-6 months on an exciting research project that only ends up as a 140 page academic report read by a few professors and external examiners, our goal is to create the right circumstances around the thesis project so the unbiased talent and creativity of these students can help inspire real companies and real people with real challenges.

Sometimes “closer to reality” means they get a job in the company they partner with, sometimes a job in one of the Stibo divisions and again sometimes students end up launching their own startup.

Who can join?

Most of the teams we have in the Stibo Accelerator are Master students from various IT, business or journalism schools.

There is a good reason for that: In the 6 months students are working on their Master Thesis, they have 100% commitment to this project and they are driven by a desire to research, build, test and iterate. From our experience, these students find huge value in working on their projects in close collaboration with Stibo and our partners.

Startups are welcome too – the only condition is that Stibo can help them grow in a sustainable way. This means that a startup will not be admitted only if their business model looks good, but we will take them in if Stibo can be the “missing acid in the battery”.

Writing your thesis in the Stibo Accelerator gives students opportunity to explore radical innovation and real challenges for real organisations on the Stibo network.

Every Wednesday morning all teams meet and share their project status, next weeks tasks and what kind of help they may need from the other teams. And we often finish the meeting with a quick Kahoot on some random topic.

The teams often support each other through idea generation, brainstorming sessions, academic sparring, etc.

We know how important it is for the research teams to meet the actual potential future users of their products. This is a 3-hour idea generation session with one of Scandinavis's largest retailers, REMA1000.